[Wolves] Fwd: Ubuntu 14.04 Nvidia upgrade woes

[Andy Wootton]

On 09/07/14 15:09, Adam Sweet wrote:
> On 08/07/14 21:43, Andy Wootton wrote:
>> Try again
>
> I missed your original thread while I was on holiday, I'm just 
> catching up. As always, no replies means nobody has an answer for you, 
> rather than everyone is ignoring you.
I realise that Ad. My problem is that I can't see my own question but I 
can see my replies and now your replies. I'm using Thunderbird to read 
from Gmail and I think there must be some sort of loop detection going 
on. Now I'm sure what's happening, I can look into it.
>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject:     Ubuntu 14.04 Nvidia upgrade woes
>> Date:     Fri, 04 Jul 2014 17:25:13 +0100
>> From:     Andy Wootton <andy.wootton at bcs.org.uk>
>> To:     Wolverhampton Linux User Group <wolves at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>>
>>
>>
>> My test upgrade to 14.04 on my Eee PC went without any serious issues,
>> so I decided to press ahead with a Revo 3600 that I use regularly as my
>> 'quick web browse' box. BUT it has an Nvidia card. The last 2 Ubuntu
>> updates have unhelpfully ignored my preference for Nvidia's proprietary
>> binary drivers that 'just work' by installing the Nvidia drivers that
>> "don't". I worked this out last time but this time something has gone
>> horribly wrong. I tried to install the drivers from the command line but
>> when I tried to reboot, I get only a desktop on which I can create
>> folders or text files to my hearts content - but nothing else. I can
>> only get a command line with <CTRL>/<ALT>/<F1> back to the console.
>
> I've had this happen before, I can't find the exact solution I used, 
> but I think it involved removing a 'dot' file from my home directory. 
> It might have been .xsession-errors or .Xauthority.
>
>> I seem to have a half-installed nvidia-331 that I can't remove. I get
>> "stop: Unknown instance:
>> userdel: existing lock file /etc/subuid.lock without a PID
>> userdel: cannot lock /etc/subuid: try again later." from aptget remove
>> and I can't install because it already 'is'.
>>
>> then it says the post-removal script returns error exit status 16, which
>> I take to be due to the lock and dpkg returns 1.
>> I've tried every apt* fix or purge command I know but I don't know much.
>>
>> Does anyone know an appropriate spell for such an occasion?
>
> That's a whole different ball game to what I was talking about above. 
> The fact that you get a GUI of any kind should mean that the driver is 
> working, but having a half installed driver package installed is a bit 
> of a bummer.
>
> If it were my machine, I'd think about booting into single user mode 
> so you can login on the CLI without the GUI starting (I think there's 
> an option to do so at the bootloader menu if you get  one, or find out 
> how to get one if you don't), check whether /etc/subuid.lock exists 
> and remove it if it does as it's almost certainly left dangling, then 
> run an apt-get update and an apt-get dist-upgrade to see if you can 
> finish the installation off.
>
> I say this without any kind of warranty of course. Googling suggests 
> that subiud.lock is created by useradd to prevent multiple useradd 
> instances running at the same time. I can't believe that this should 
> be happening so removing it should be fine in single user mode while 
> you're not running anything. This may help explain:
>
> http://askubuntu.com/questions/459080/useradd-cannot-lock-etc-subuid-try-again-later 
>
>
> sudo lsof /etc/subuid
>
> should tell what is using the file. If nothing, then you can remove it 
> then run an update and dist-upgrade.
>
> Other options include just reinstalling the machine and retaining your 
> /home partition if you have one, or otherwise, using rsync to copy 
> your /home/woo(?) directory off somewhere, reinstalling from scratch 
> and rsyncing the data back afterwards. I do that every time I get a 
> new machine, so my desktop setup, files and app settings follow me 
> from machine to machine.
>
> Regards,
>
> Adam Sweet
>
Thanks. I've never had any trouble with Linux lock files so this is new 
to me. I wasn't sure if they locked by being there or by being open so I 
was afraid to delete it then not know what I needed to create. Now I 
know they're safe(ish) to delete, I can have another look. It isn't a 
problem to completely reinstall, as it's a spare machine but if I'm 
going to do that I may as well give up and get Windows. I started using 
Linux to get to know Unix but everything just works, so I've never 
really had to. I may as well try to learn something while I have the chance.

Cheers,
Woo